Page 110 - Christies Asia Week 2015 Chinese Works of Art

Fig. 1. A painted enamel covered bowl decorated with landscape scenes and fgures,
Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795), in the collection of the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, After Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999,
p. 254, no. 135.
This elegantly-shaped, rectangular-sectioned wine pot is beautifully painted
in rich enamel colours in three contrasting, but complementary, styles. The
background is painted with elaborate, multi-coloured foral scrolls against
an imperial yellow ground. Each of the decorative panels is framed by two
confronting archaistic dragons painted in shaded blue and white – their
tails and extended wings looping around to meet in the centre of the
top and bottom of the frame, respectively. Within the panels the scenes
of scholars in garden landscapes have been painted with considerable
naturalism making full use of stippling and the extended enamel palette.
While each of these three styles of painting is different, they combine to
create a harmonious overall design.
A very similar use of styles, colours and themes can be seen on a Qianlong
covered bowl in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999,
p. 254, no. 135. (Fig. 1) Not only are the background and panel frames
similar to those on the current wine pot, both the painting style and the
subject of scholars in garden landscape settings within the three panels
on the lower part of the Taipei covered bowl are very similar those on the
wine pot. Two additional similarities can be seen. One is the red enamel six- on the Moscow tea container are less rich than those on the current wine
character Qianlong seal mark within a single square, which appears on the
base of both vessels. The other is the band of blue ruyi heads highlighted
with a single white dot which encircles both the fnial on the current
wine pot and the foot of both lid and base of the covered bowl. While
the geometric blue-on-white bands around the edge of the lid and of the
mouth and of the lower part of the wine pot, and around the feet and lid
edge of the covered bowl are of somewhat different design, it is signifcant
that the bands around the edge of the lid of the wine pot, and the feet of
the covered bowl are all painted between narrow red bands.
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A similar use of yellow ground with multi-coloured foral scrolls punctuated
by panels containing depictions of scholars in garden landscapes can be
seen on a Qianlong hand-warmer – also with red enamel six-character
Qianlong seal mark within a single square – in the collection of the National
Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing
Dynasties, op. cit., p. 243, no. 134) although the frames of the panels
on the hand-warmer are in red tones and created using abutted S- and
C-shaped elements. The use of imperial yellow grounds ornamented with
multi-coloured foral scrolls was much admired by the court in the Qianlong
reign and can be seen on a number of items in a range of forms preserved
in the collections of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the National Palace
Museum, Taipei.
A scene of scholars in a garden setting, similar to the one on the current
wine pot, appears on a Qianlong enamelled tea container in the collection
of the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow (illustrated by Marina
Neglinskaya in Kitaÿske raspisnìe zmali, Moscow, 1995, cat. 38), although
in the case of the Moscow piece, one scholar is playing the qin while
another listens and a servant approaches with refreshments. The enamels
pot and the covered bowl from the National Palace Museum Collection,
and the dominant colour in the background is blue rather than yellow, but
it is interesting to note that the style was appreciated by the European elite
as well as those in China.
Rosemary Scott
International Academic Director, Asian Art
(another view)